


two girls, one cat

by virgoasc



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, gertrude is baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-08 11:48:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19869148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virgoasc/pseuds/virgoasc
Summary: She wakes up promptly at the same time every day, just like her roommate, and chats up a storm until her breakfast is set in front of her. She can tell when her roommate is sad and goes to comfort her. She’s not the jealous type. She doesn’t like strangers, but does her best to ignore them if they visit.for Sanvers Summer Crush!





	two girls, one cat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lucy_Diamond](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucy_Diamond/gifts).



> for the sake of simplicity, gertrude knows what things like phones and televisions and whatnot are. i also like to imagine her with black fur and green eyes :) i love black cats
> 
> i hope you enjoy, ray!

She wakes up promptly at the same time every day, just like her roommate, and chats up a storm until her breakfast is set in front of her. She can tell when her roommate is sad and goes to comfort her. She’s not the jealous type. She doesn’t like strangers, but does her best to ignore them if they visit. 

Sometimes, when her roommate’s sister is over, she’ll even “make biscuits” a little longer and a little more dramatically than necessary, because it makes them titter. 

Gertrude is a very good kitty, except when she’s not.

“Jesus Christ, Gerty. Litter in my boots. How does it even get in there?”

Gertrude pauses her grooming, looking up. Alex, the roommate, exasperatingly shuffles into the kitchen to shake her boots upside down over the trash can. Gertrude widens her big green eyes and sticks her tongue just enough to make it seem like an accident.

“You’re too much.” Alex sighs, checking her watch. “Shit, I’m late. Kara’s gonna come over and feed you on her way to work, okay? You’ll be fine.”

_What? But I don’t know how it got there, either! I’m hungry!_

“It’s just a few minutes, Gertrude. Stop being a drama queen.”

_We have a schedule._ You _are the one messing it up._

But Alex is gone before Gertrude can protest any more.

Annoyed, Gertrude wanders around until she spots the bathroom and finds the role of toilet paper, swatting it. Some of the paper unfurls and hits the floor. She swats at it again. 

There's a _whoosh_ at the window and she sees Alex's sister walk in, wearing bright colors. 

"Hey there, Trudy-booty! You hungry?" 

_No shit._

"Aww, you're so cute, you know that?" 

Gertrude chows down when the bowl is set down, but it feels like too soon that it's already gone. She pads over to Kara and jumps in her lap. 

"Gertrude, you're gonna get cat fur on my suit!" Gertrude purrs. "Not that I care, of course." 

Suddenly, Kara perks up. Gertrude strains her ears, but can’t hear anything. How Alex’s sister can hear so well but Alex can’t even hear the television unless it’s screaming back is a question Gertrude hasn’t figured out how to answer.

“I’m so sorry, baby girl, but duty calls.” Kara lifts Gertrude, who gives a trill, before setting her down, and she’s gone as fast as she came.

Gertrude is left alone, _again_. She likes being solitary, but only when others are around so she’s able to relish it― being alone means being bored, more often than not. Her toys get boring, especially because at least half of them need a second party to make it worthwhile. Most everything else she could play with is off limits; she’d learned that as a kitten.

And sleeping is fun, but, again, that also gets boring.

Gertrude notices a chill and spots that the balcony door is open. She’s been out numerous times, but never while home alone. Why not try it now? She has nothing better to do.

Hopping out is easier than expected. Gertrude almost expects Kara, or worse, Alex, to shoo her back in, but it doesn’t happen. 

Then, she _sees_ it.

A squirrel.

Gertrude has only ever been able to look at them. But she wants to touch one. She wants to play with it. She crouches down, ready to strike, but after a few steps, the squirrel looks at her with its beady eyes and starts to scurry away. Gertrude instantly chases after it.

_Not on my watch! Gotta catch gotta catch gotta catch gotta catch―_

The squirrel suddenly climbs up a tree and as hard as Gertrude tries to paw at it, she isn’t a very great climber, and she can’t jump onto anything for help. She’s stuck.

And, looking around, she’s lost, too.

Where is her home? She starts sniffing, trying to backtrack, but this place is so much louder and smellier than home and she can’t tell what’s her and what’s the millions of other animals, people, food items, or garbage. She doesn’t know whether every step she takes is a step closer or a step further away.

She spends what seems forever trying to remember where she went. She can tell she’s getting close; Kara takes her on walks to a park once in a blue moon, and she starts to find herself on the path they take to and from. She isn’t able to make it, though.

It starts to rain.

First, a few droplets. A relief after Gertrude feels exhausted from walking. Her paws hurt. Her nose and whiskers are overwhelmed.

But it soon becomes a downpour. Gertrude hates being wet, and hates the feeling of her fur being weighed down. It also grows cold, and she finds herself shivering on the sidewalk. It only adds to her exhaustion. And with the rain, it’s hard to navigate, even if the route is somewhat familiar.

“Look, I’m sorry I couldn’t make i―God, You’re not going to understand, are you? I’ll call you back later, okay?” Gertrude looks up and sees a looming figure. It soon crouches down.

“You look a little sad there, buddy. How about I bring you to my place for the night?” It picks her up with one arm, having an umbrella in its other hand.

_Hey…!_ Gertrude is too tired to do or say anything else.

“I know, I know. I’m gonna get you all dried up, okay?”

Gertrude just slumps in the figure’s arms, and an infinite moment later, she’s inside. A few minutes later, a towel is rubbing against her.

_This sucks._

“First time I’ve brought a wet puss to the house only to have it unhappy.” The figure snickers. “You’ll be okay. Let me turn the fireplace on. It’s not spring yet, anyway.”

Gertrude falls asleep as she starts to warm up, and is nudged awake what seems like seconds after she closes her eyes. _What do you want?_

“Sorry. I have food. Not for cats, but it’ll do. You hungry?”

Gertrude hadn’t even realized how hungry she really was until she saw the food. She jumped up and started to wolf the food down. Canned meat of some sort.

“Jeez. Guess you were, huh?”

When Gertrude is done, she starts to groom. Too much matted fur from exploring and the rain and the towel.

The figure tilts her head. “You look pretty dandy. You need anything, I’ll be in there, okay?” She points to a bedroom. “Night night, mysterious kitty. I’ll leave the window cracked for when you wanna leave.”

\- - -

Gertrude pads back to her and Alex’s place pretty easily the next day; it’s sunny, and the window she climbed out of is right on the path to the park.

Gertrude checks through every window she sees until, on the second set of windows, she’s able to see Alex pacing. _Hey! Let me in!_ She hits the window.

Alex turns, and seeing the source of the noise, rushes towards Gertrude.

“You’re not usually a wanderer. I hope you’re okay! ― Yes, Kara, it’s Gertrude.” Gertrude comes in, standing on the windowsill to rub herself against Alex’s side. “No, I’m not calling her that. Nicknames are stupid. Yeah, Yeah. Love you, too.”

Alex puts her phone away. “You have been very naughty.”

Gertrude trills.

“But you’re _my_ naughty, I guess.”

\- - -

A few days later, Gertrude finds herself home alone and bored again. When Kara comes to pet her in the middle of the day, Gertrude jumps on the windowsill and paws and the glass.

_I wanna go out!_

“Didn’t you get caught in the rain last time this happened!”

_Out!_

“Fine, but only because you came back by yourself last time. If I catch you killing wildlife, I’m telling Alex and you’re not getting let out again.”

Gertrude enjoys the sunlight. She sees many squirrels and a few birds, but after the incident, she doesn’t feel like going through it again. She finds herself at the place where the nice figure saved her. 

Jumping up on the window, she notices the figure is actually home! _LET ME IN!_ She desperately paws at the glass yet again. She notices the figure stir― was it asleep? Oops.― but Gertrude is let in.

“Looks like you’re back, huh, kitty?” the figure says. “On my day off, too.”

_I was bored. You’re home_.

Gertrude passes between the two roommates like a toy being bat between her paws. She enjoys it. Every day, she’ll make the journey to the other apartment, now that both places leave a window cracked for her convenience. Some days, The Other Roommate isn’t there, but on the days that it is, she lets herself in and enjoys the company, even if from afar.

“I don’t get why you come all the way over from where you live only to sleep in another room,” Other Roommate will joke, sometimes.

She’ll stay the night every once in a while, but Gertrude enjoys sleeping with Alex on a quilt at the foot of her bed. 

She still doesn’t know the name of her other roommate, though― compared to this roommate, Alex was a social butterfly. Gertrude had never seen anyone but The Other Roommate in the apartment.

It was a few weeks before the other roommate even had a name other than The Other Roommate.

“Look, cat. I keep cat food in my pantry. I have a handful of socks that have become your toys. I guess I should name you, huh?”

So The Other Roommate became Sully.

\- - -

One day, when Sully isn’t in the other apartment, Gertrude makes her way back to her own apartment. When Alex comes home, she isn’t in a good mood. She’s muttering, but Gertrude can’t discern it.

“You wanna make some popcorn, Gertrude? Let’s watch a movie. Die Hard.”

Gertrude flicks an ear and follows Alex into the kitchen; Alex only watches Die Hard when she’s had a hard day at work.

\- - -

A few days later, Gertrude finds that Sully is in the apartment.

“Hey, kit.” Sully is sitting on the couch, watching television. “Sometimes I wonder what you do when you’re not here, considering it’s most of the time. I’m the side chick, huh. You got a job or something?”

_What’s a “job”?_

“You ever have annoying coworkers? Well, not technically a coworker, more like someone from a different department. Tell me, at your kitty job, how would you tell them off?”

_Huh?_

“God, and now I’m talking to a cat.”

_Hey, what’s wrong with that?_

\- - -

Gertrude notices a change in Alex. It’s subtle, but Gertrude has lived here her whole life, and she can tell when something is up.

One day, at a time where flurries comes into the house when Kara enters through the balcony (and Gertrude gets to play with them on the wooden tile for a few moments before the warm floor melts it), Alex is talking to Kara on the phone, petting Gertrude while Gertrude playfully bats at her side.

“Yeah, I’m gonna have to cancel Sister’s Night. I just feel bad, like, nauseous.” Pause. “No, I don’t need you to check up on me. It’s just that time of the year, okay? Yes, I love you too.”

Gertrude pauses her game. She looks up at Alex with big green eyes. Alex picks her up halfway, situating her thumbs so that they rest under Gertrude’s arms.

“You’d love me no matter what, right, Gertrude.”

Gertrude blinks slowly. _You’re not getting a dog, are you?_

\- - -

Sully has a rough, rough night.

Gertrude can only hear half of the phone conversation, but even that half, she can’t understand some of the words. _Selfish. Borderline sociopath. Workaholic._ None of them sound positive.

She’s glad she’s here when she is; she has always been a good cuddler when Alex has had a bad day, and now she’s here to give it to Sully.

\- - -

It is Gertrude’s least favorite time of the year.

She hisses as Alex tries to guide her into the tiny cat crate.

“Please,” Alex begs, “it’s a short car ride. I promise.”

“Do you want me to help?” Kara says.

“I don’t want Gertrude being spoiled thinking she can lose her mind just because you won’t get hurt.”

Five minutes later, Kara ends up placing Gertrude in the crate, anyway. Gertrude gnaws on the chainlink door until they get to their destination. Then, Gertrude is tossed around for a few moments; it’s not on purpose, but the feeling of unsolid ground beneath her paws makes every tiny movement seem like an earthquake.

_This fucking sucks!_

“I’m sorry, Trudy-booty, but you’ve got to get your shots.”

A few terrifying, traumatic, and explicit moments later, Gertrude is placed on a scale.

“She’s a little overweight,” the vet says. “What’s her diet like?”

“Nothing’s changed on my end,” Alex says. She glances at her sister. “Unless you’ve been feeding her too many treats.”

“Nope.” Kara pops the ‘p’ sound. “Two treats a day, as is my maximum. And my own personal minimum. ‘Cause you’re a good kitty, aren’t you?” She scratches behind Gertrude’s ear. _Ooh. That feels nice._ “Gooooooood kitty.”

“Well,” says the vet, “sometimes, a slowing metabolism comes with age. Maybe start restricting her food.”

_Restricting my huh?_

“How ironic that Dr. Danvers has a chubby kitty cat,” Kara says. “Isn’t that right, Trudy-booty?”

Alex rolls her eyes.

“Oh, you’re a doctor?” the vet asks. He picks up Gertrude off the scale. “What do you study?”

“Biochemistry and medicine,” Alex says. “I almost became a pediatrician.”

“Oh, that’s cool.” The vet takes out a jar and picks out a little cat treat. “Free of anything fattening, of course.” He laughs as he feeds it to Gertrude. “For your troubles.”

_This treat tastes like cardboard. And I should know, because I like to eat it to annoy you_.

“Oh, uh, thanks.” Alex laughs nervously. “C’mon, Kara. We’re gonna have to get her in the crate again.”

When they get home from the vet, Gertrude immediately heads towards under the coffee table. She might never leave again, not even for Sully.

“Hey!” Kara says. “That guy was cute. You should’ve said something! Gotten his number or something. I’m sure him being Gertrude’s vet is perfectly legal and professional, still.”

“Huh?” Alex looks frazzled. “What do you mean?”

“You say something. Ask him out. You go on a date.” Kara talks like she’s explaining simple addition to a kindergartner. “It’s pretty easy.”

“Kara, no. If you think he’s so cute, _you_ ask him out.”

“Alex.” Kara crosses her arms. “I know something’s been up lately, but I can’t think of anything I’ve been doing for you to talk to me like that. If you have something to say, say it.”

Alex stays silent.

“I was just trying to be helpful.” Kara sits down, spreading out on the couch. “You’ve been single for as long as I can remember, it feels like. I feel like if you had something other than me or your job to put your energy towards―”

“I have friends! Lucy, Winn, Vasquez…”

“Fine. Me, your job, your friends. Something else, something _romantic_ ―”

“I do, okay?!” Alex sighs, plopping on the couch next to her sister. “At least… I’d like to think so. I don’t know. It’s… complicated. Hard. Maybe it’s not romantic, I don’t know.”

Kara’s expression grows soft. “What do you mean? What makes it complicated?”

Alex starts to tear up. Seeing this, Gertrude scooches halfway out from under the table, resting her head against Alex’s sock-clad foot. “It’s, well… umm…”

“Start with his name.” 

Alex looks up through her eyelashes. A beat. “Maggie.”

“Oh.” Kara’s eyes widen. “That’s okay, too, Alex. I wish you could’ve told me.”

“I just figured it out myself, honestly.”

“I’m sorry,” Kara says, “if you ever felt like you couldn’t tell me anything…”

Alex leans her head on Kara’s shoulder. 

Gertrude falls asleep. 

\- - -

On one of the few nights Gertrude stays the night at Sully’s, she notices Sully is more trodden than usual. Defeated.

Sully goes from the door to the bedroom, barely taking enough time to slide shoes off. Getting into bed, Sully whispers, “You don’t think I’m horrible, do you?”

_I think you’re pretty great, actually._

“I just…” A huge sigh. “She’s not ready. Not for me.”

\- - -

In the midst of cold, Gertrude is in a warm blanket. A slam is heard.

She pricks an ear at the sound of the front door unlocking. She’s in the master bedroom, laying on a bad she’s technically not allowed to lie on when she’s home alone, lest black cat fur ruin the nice white duvet, but she’s too lazy to get up. She knows that worst case scenario, Alex will just toss her off. 

There’s a commotion going on in the living room. Someone else is home.

This causes Gertrude to lift her head. Other than Alex, Kara, and the few friends that come over every once in a while, Gertrude isn’t very warm to visitors. She doesn’t know very many people, and she doesn’t care to. 

There’s a hasty opening of the bedroom door, and Gertrude prepares to get lifted up, but she notices Alex is too preoccupied. Kissing someone.

_Wait a minute._

Alex notices the meow and looks at Gertrude. “Ugh, I’m so sorry, she knows she’s not allowed to be on the bed.” Alex motions to pick Gertrude up but Gertrude is quicker, sliding off the bed to rub up against the legs of the other person in the room.

“Wow, Maggie, consider yourself lucky. She’s pretty wary to strangers.”

“I… I don’t think we’re strangers.” Maggie picks Gertrude up. Gertrude’s back paws dangle in the air. “Sully?”’

“Wait, _Gertrude_ is the cat that meows at your window until you let her in and feed her?” Alex crouches down to take a good look at her cat. “No wonder you’ve been getting pudgy.” She points an accusatory finger. “Bad kitty.”

Gertrude is a very good kitty, except when she’s not.


End file.
